ROME, June 10 (Reuters) – Italy’s competition authority on Wednesday slapped a €7 million ($8.1 million) fine on Philip Morris’ Italian unit over allegedly misleading marketing for non-combustion tobacco products.
It said it had conducted a “complex investigation prompted by a complaint from the Ministry of Health” into the way Philip Morris Italia promoted increasingly popular combustion-free products, such as heated tobacco or e-vapor devices.
“Expressions and claims such as ‘smoke-free’, ‘smoke-free products’ and ‘building/planning/accelerating a smoke-free future’ (…) mislead consumers – including minors – into believing that the products are harmless to health and/or less harmful than other tobacco products, particularly traditional cigarettes,” the authority said.
“The evidence gathered (…) actually indicates that current scientific and clinical knowledge does not support the claim that these products are less harmful or harmless, not least because of the presence of nicotine,” the regulator added.
Philip Morris Italia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When the Italian probe was launched in October 2025, the company said its communication was “factual, truthful, and fully consistent with Italian and European legislation, which associates the absence of smoke with the absence of combustion.”
($1 = 0.8648 euros)
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones)